The University of San Diego Burnham-Moores Institute Center for Real Estate's Economic Indicators for June, which was released Tuesday, showed an increase of 0.4 percent.
The climb, the smallest since August of last year, was led by gains in the number of residential building permits that were issued in the region, the outlook for the national economy and local stock prices, USD professor Alan Gin said.
He said those gains offset a dip in the jobs picture and drop in consumer confidence. Those declines were small and could easily turn around, he said.
"The outlook for the local economy remains strong for the rest of the year and likely through at least the first half of 2016," Gin said. "The local job market has been strong through the first half of this year."
For the first half of 2015, residential units authorized by building permits were up about 28 percent compared to the same period in 2014, according to the professor. He said the gain was distributed evenly between single-family and multi-family units, with the former being up almost 27 percent and the latter up over 29 percent.
The index now stands at 140.1, the highest level since November 2006, and has climbed 13 months in a row, according to data provided by Gin.